Tag
by pollyglyph
Summary: Kaku is concerned that Lucci and Paulie's fights have been growing more violent.


Paulie gives him a reliable vent for his frustrations. Any time Lucci feels the twinge of bloodlust, he can always count on a quick snide remark at an opportune moment to send Paulie off into a rage of rants and fists.

It's a push and pull that he finds a little amusing at first but starts to grow tiresome and predictable quite quickly once he's seen everything Paulie has to offer in a fight. For all that seems like just hot air though, he does tend to give Lucci a satisfying enough battle if he pushes him hard enough. But he still knows if he were to take it seriously, Paulie wouldn't stand a chance against him. He'd love to see how far he could push him if the fight truly got serious, how he'd hold up against the six powers or how easily he might just break into pieces beneath them.

It never lasts long until one of the other shipwright drones break them up, but if he's drawn a little blood in the scuffle, Lucci's itch feels scratched for at least another short while longer.

* * *

"You're obsessed with him," Kaku remarks bitterly.

Lucci takes a sip at his coffee across the table from him. "A baseless conclusion." Lucci puts the mug down. "But go on, amuse me. State your evidence then."

"Every darn day this week the pair of you have been at it with fisticuffs," he recalls. "Creepiest thing about it though was catching you slinking about that one time in the locker room afterwards, practically lapping the blood off your fingertips."

Kaku bites into his toast, and with a full mouth, remarks, "If you don't cool it down a tad and slide things down a notch with whatever the heck this game of cat and mouse is, you're going to end up doing something that draws everyone's attention straight to you. You'll give the whole game away."

Lucci's sharp eyes narrow. "You can't talk. You're starting to feel it just as much as I am. The frustration." Lucci gets up from his seat and begins to stalk around the table. "This investigation is taking far too long. You're as bored as I am. Throwing yourself off roof tops? What made you think a stunt like that wasn't going to draw attention?"

He grabs his hat off Kaku's coat stand.

"Stick to your own thrills and I'll keep to mine."

Kaku shrugs. "Whatever you say. Although they're hard to keep separate when they keep overlapping, if you catch my drift. It's just lucky for me you'd never kill a fellow operative."

Lucci pulls open the door and as he's stepping out, Kaku calls after him, "Kill Paulie today and that's everything sunk y'know? I'm never going to forgive you if we all have to go find a new line of work once we're booted out the door of the Government for your screw up."

Lucci doesn't turn back. "I've dealt justice on missions before and there hasn't been a single consequence."

"Dealt justice? Is that what the kids are calling murder these days? What's Paulie done to deserve justice anyway? It's Mr Iceburg that's our target, remember?"

"Picking constant fights with a Cipher Pol operative is more than enough of a crime to warrant it."

* * *

Kaku runs a damp cloth along the gash on Paulie's shoulder, and he winces, biting down hard into his cigar.

"It's fine, stop fussing so much," Paulie laughs. "Gave him a pretty bad black-eye back. Gonna be wearing that for a week at least."

Kaku reaches over to his table for a dressing. "Y'know Paulie, you don't have to keep challenging him," Kaku says cautiously, placing it over the last of Paulie's wounds.

It's not quite deep enough to warrant stitches, but Lucci was getting remarkably close. He's tried to talk about this with Paulie before enough times to know that his pride was often incredibly fragile. There's only so much Kaku can do to try to warn him before he stops listening.

"Just a bit of fun," Paulie dismisses, tipping his chair back and forth.

"Fun?" Kaku remarks, looking down the map of bruises blotting Paulie's chest.

There's every shade of faded green through to tones of fresh purple. Kaku's got marks similar enough that he can more or less age each of Paulie's just on sight alone.

"Sounds like you got the hallmarks of masochism to me bucko."

He pokes Paulie playfully in the ribs to soften the blow, but it's hard to drop his concern and let it go.

"If it's getting too much for you, you'd tell me right?" Kaku offers. "Sometimes I think the guy doesn't know where to draw the line."

"What and you'll come running to my rescue or something?" Paulie chuckles. He lets out an exhale of smoke. "Pretty sure I can handle him on my own."

"Maybe," Kaku replies.

Paulie had no idea.

Kaku isn't too sure at what point his own game with Paulie became something more serious, but he knows he's in far too deep now to work his way back out of it.

He runs a hand along Paulie's face. He still goes red at Kaku's touch, though by now he's also got the confidence to own it with a self-aware smile.

Kaku grabs Paulie's cigar and stubs it out into an ashtray on the table. He climbs up onto Paulie's lap and wraps his arms around to slide down the small of Paulie's back.

"You know I'm here to tag into the ring and hit him with the chair if you ever wanna tap out."

Paulie sniggers into it as their lips press together.

"Sure I'll let you know."


End file.
